Summary: Why are words of Genesis 1:1 the first verse in our Bible? And what can these words mean to us who trust in God for our hope and our salvation?

(We opened with a youtube video featuring David Attenborough reciting the words to the famous Louis Armstrong song: “It’s a Wonderful World” for a BBC nature program commercial. It beautifully illustrates the splendor of God’s creation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIEA5sX7W9Q).

We do indeed live in a wonderful world.

ILLUS: In 1968, an Apollo 8 astronaut named Bill Anders took pictures of the earth from his spacecraft that have since become widely published. Looking back on his trip into space, Anders said of our planet:

“It was the only color we could see in the universe”

And there’s a reason for that.

Our world is remarkably designed for life.

ILLUS: Scientists have determined we’re in the “goldilocks” region of our sun. We’re not too far away, not too close… we’re JUST RIGHT. (The “goldilocks” region)

If we were much closer the sun we would be cooked to death. If we were much farther away, we would be frozen solid.

More than that, IF - during its next orbit around the Sun - the Earth were to deviate by only a fraction of an inch every twenty miles or so we would either fry or freeze with a year. That’s how unique and spectacularly privileged our orbit of the sun is. We are in the Goldilocks region of the sun.

In fact, our planet is tilted (with regard to sun) in very a “Goldilocks” kind of way. As the earth revolves around the sun, it does so at a constant 23 degrees on its axis. Because of that “tilt” our planet is able to support far more life than if we were perpendicular.

If the Earth wasn’t tilted, the poles would be colder, the equator would be hotter … and less of the earth’s surface would be livable.

(PAUSE)

Now, some night, look up at the moon.

Our moon seems to be a lifeless dust ball in the sky.

And that’s because it is.

Even though the moon is roughly the same distance from the sun as we are, it’s temperatures range from 214 degrees above zero to 243 degrees below zero.

No life can exist on there.

But if it weren’t for that lifeless moon, our oceans would be dead.

The moon’s magnetic attraction on earth creates the tides on our oceans.

If the moon were much bigger or closer, the ocean tides would overwhelm us with repeated waves the size of tsunamis. If it were much smaller or farther away – tides would be almost nonexistent and life in the oceans would be impossible.

Now those are just a few of the reasons that we live on a wonderful – life filled – world. It’s not too much of one thing, or too little of another. It’s JUST RIGHT.

And there’s a reason for that.

In the beginning - God created the heavens and the earth.

God created our planet to be like nothing else in the universe.

Now, there are people - even scientists - who dispute that.

They claim that the earth didn’t need God to get the job done.

They are driven to explain this world in naturalistic terms. But because God would be a SUPER naturalistic influence – they reject His involvement as being irrational.

So, in place of God, they substitute another force: something they call “The Theory of Evolution.